Tag: Final Fantasy

This is the latest in my series of Excel color-by-number worksheets. This one is aimed at introducing students to some of the ‘magical’ properties of multiplication. Multiplication by 1, 10, 11, 9, and squares are all touched on here. For those who aren’t rabid fans of 80’s Nintendo video games, the character is the Black Mage from the game Final Fantasy, unleashing a QUAKE spell.

Because math is earth-shaking.

My next challenge is to figure out how to let the player choose which spell the Black Mage casts. I sense some heavy IF/THEN in my future . . .

For several months now, SmackJeeves has hosted my interactive sprite comic Perilous Jack and the Frost Potion, under the domain name PerilousJack.com. But Frost Potion is only the first chapter of a longer tale. It’s time for PerilousJack.com to grow! The second chapter of the tale, Perilous Jack and the Magic Beans, is nearly complete, with the following chapters close behind. Along with Magic Beans, I’ll be rolling out an all-new PerilousJack.com, to better showcase all of Jack’s adventures.

The new PerilousJack.com will devote an individual page to each chapter of Jack’s adventures, with synopses, trivia, screenshots, and links to the sprite comics. There will also be pages dedicated to his special appearances, such as How to Cross the Flaming Chasm of ZLORK and the board game Numerian Nine.

Here’s a few screenshots from the new site:

Here’s the home page, showing one of five different header images.

These images link to a short description of each volume of Perilous Jack’s adventures. From there you can go to the sprite comic, hosted on SmackJeeves.com

This is the landing page for Perilous Jack and the Frost Potion. The header image is one of the five random headers that loads each time a page is viewed. The image is from Perilous Jack and the Cloud Castle.

This is the ‘About’ page, with my usual disclaimers about copyright and links to the other websites.

This is another view of the Home Page, showing another one of the random headers (in this case, a scene from Perilous Jack and the Plateau of the Endless), along with the repeating background.

The Perilous Adventures of Jack the Dragonslayeris a series of Choose Your Own Adventure™-style sprite comics hosted on SmackJeeves.com and featuring sprites ripped from the Final Fantasy™ and Super Mario Brothers™ video games. The stories, characters, settings, and illustrations are mine, but the sprites used to create the illustrations are the work of the talented designers at Square Enix® and Nintendo®.

Perilous Jack and the Frost Potion is Volume One of a five-part series called The Abduction of Princess Vasilisa. In this volume, Perilous Jack returns home from an adventure to discover that Princess Vasilisa has been abducted by a Cloud Giant!

But before he can face the giant, Perilous Jack must fight his way past the guardian of the giant’s castle – a Pyrohydra.

But as everyone knows, when you cut off a Hydra’s head, two more grow in its place. Hercules used a torch to seal off the cut necks of the Lernaean Hydra, but that trick won’t work on a creature of flame . . .

Only a Frost Potion can help Jack past the guardian of the castle. And the only Frost Potion for miles is in a monster haunted labyrinth, under the guardianship of the terrible Bull God. A most perilous adventure!

You can read the sprite comic here. When you’re finished, check out the flowchart below (Spoiler Alert!)

Flowcharts are practically required if you’re doing a Choose Your Own Adventure™ – style story. There’s no better way to avoid dead ends and illogical loops, plus they look nifty. I did this in Visio.

The full-size flowchart for Perilous Jack and the Frost Potion is here.

Here’s the second half of How to Cross the Flaming Chasm of Zlork, with captions explaining the simple method of crossing.

The Flaming Chasm of Zlork receives brief mention in my novel Tattered Faces Volume One: The Alchemist, which I’ll be done with any day now.

Zlork contains images ripped from various Super Mario Brothers™ and Final Fantasy™ video games. Credit for the original sprites goes to the talented artists at Nintendo and Capcom. Please support the hard work of game designers by purchasing authentic games. Beholder is a copyright of Wizards of the Coast. Human Torch is a Marvel character, yo.

For more of the Perilous Adventures of Jack the Dragonslayer, click here.

Hero (36), still coated with sticky frog guts, makes easy target trying to escape on Ladder (37). He is snatched up by hungry Fire Elemental (38), who pops him into a Cauldron of Alphabet Soup (39).

A Coal Elemental (58) drops from a Conveyor Belt at the same moment, and the impact of his greater weight catapults the 3-Headed Snake up and across the Chasm, where he lands on a Giant Mushroom (59).

Meanwhile the Orange Marble (60) emerges from the Pipes and sails upward, striking a Music Block (61), which rings with a beautiful tone.

A second later, the Red Marble (62) flies from a different Pipe, rebounds against a Springboard (63), and flies back through the Pipe it emerged from, striking a different Music Block (64) and eliciting a different tone.

Absent-Minded Wizard (65), hearing musical tones and thinking his doorbell is ringing, opens Door To Nowhere (66) and falls from his deck onto the Giant Mushroom, next to the 3-Headed Snake.

Meanwhile Hero is carried upward by the Elevator Platform, eventually leaping off just before the roof of the Chasm. He lands in a Giant Rollerskate (67), which rolls along the Pipe and pitches him over the edge.

Hero leaps free just in time to land on a stone ledge next to the Chasm Control Center (68).

Meanwhile Absent-Minded Wizard takes pity on poisoned 3-Headed Snake and administers Purgative Medicine (69). 3-Headed Snake coughs up Control Orb, which it had previously swallowed mistaking it for an egg.

Control Orb rolls off of Giant Mushroom and into hand of Hero, who installs it in Chasm Control Center (70). Now in full command of machinery of Chasm, Hero reverses direction of Conveyor Belt and leaps down to ride out of the Chasm. Coal Elementals, normally brutish and violent, notice letters C-A-R-B-O-N stuck to Hero’s chest from his journey in Cauldron of Alphabet Soup and mistake Hero for an incarnation of their god. They fall down and worship Hero, conveying him safely out of THE FLAMING CHASM OF ZLORK.

A few weeks ago I posted some teaser images for my Rube Goldberg-esque sprite comic entitled How to Cross the Flaming Chasm of Zlork. Here’s a more detailed look at the artwork, with captions explaining the simple method by which one crosses the first half of the Chasm. I’ll post the artwork for the second half of the Chasm in a couple weeks.

The Flaming Chasm of Zlork receives brief mention in my novel Tattered Faces Volume One: The Alchemist, which I’ll be done with any day now.

Zlork contains images ripped from various Super Mario Brothers™ and Final Fantasy™ video games. Credit for the original sprites goes to the talented artists at Nintendo and Capcom. Please support the hard work of game designers by purchasing authentic games. Beholder is a copyright of Wizards of the Coast. Human Torch is a Marvel character, yo.

For more of the Perilous Adventures of Jack the Dragonslayer, click here.

Hero (1) leaps and grabs Steel Ring (2).

Weight of Hero pulls Chain (3), opening Valve (4). Water (5) is released from Reservoir (6).

Giant Vampire Bats flutter in confusion around head of Ninja (16), who slashes in wild abandon, accidentally flinging her Sword. Ninja Sword severs the Chain to which Hero still clings by Steel Ring, dropping Hero into magical Teleportation Field (17) emanating from pipe below. Ninja Sword falls into Teleportation Field right after Hero.

Hero is teleported to Platform (18) near center of Chasm. Cosmic Horror (19), disturbed by fluctuations in spactime continuum caused by Teleportation Field, lashes out with tentacles, breaking Water Pipe (20) and causing water to drip onto beanstalk seeds.

I designed this after I first had the idea for a Perilous Jack board game. I’m still debating whether to use it with The Curse of Numerian Nine, but I’m not convinced it works with that game. We’ll see how Numerian Nine evolves.

I did this in Inkscape, with a little bit of touch-up and prep work in MS Paint. The typeface is Hobo. The sprites are all ripped from Final Fantasy ™ by the good folks at VideoGameSprites.net

The gallery below is just snippets from the whole image. As soon as I figure out the best presentation for the whole image, I’ll post it here, with labels corresponding to each numbered segment so you can follow the action.

If you like sprite comics and want to see them continue as an art form, please support the talented game designers who created the sprites in the first place by only buying authentic games.